PEORIA, Ill. — Having passed May’s midway mark, the Peoria City/County Health Department continues to monitor the region’s COVID-19 statistics to see whether the area will be able to move to phase three of the Restore Illinois plan on May 29.
The tri-county’s total positive case count rose by two from Saturday to Sunday, to 235.
Both new local cases came in Peoria County, where the count rose to 158.
Tazewell’s and Woodford’s remained at 62 and 15, respectively.
Two ICU beds opened up from Saturday to Sunday, a decrease in bed occupancy from 13 to 11. Two of the 11 cases were potential cases, while the other nine were confirmed cases.
74% of cases have recovered since testing began.
Local leaders were still awaiting feedback from Gov. J.B. Pritzker regarding the Restore Heart of Illinois plan.
Health Administrator Monica Hendrickson explained why the local three-phase plan doesn’t contain benchmark dates.
“We recognize any intervention or any change, we have to at least monitor it from one incubation period of the virus,” she said.
“It’s going to be a rolling number, so we understand continuously where we sit at a given time period.
“We could give a hard date, and people would say ‘okay, this date means you can start wearing white shoes and white hats after Memorial Day,’ but that’s not what it is. It’s going to be more of understanding where we sit and the status of a situation.”
Hendrickson said like Pritzker with Restore Illinois, local leaders won’t say the Restore Heart of Illinois plan has been fully implemented until there is a vaccine.
